Situated on the important Mohawk Valley route between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes, Utica long served as a travel crossroads where Indian trails converged and Fort Schuyler was built in 1758. The community that grew around the fort’s ruins became the village of Utica in 1798. During the American Revolution, patriot militia under General Nicholas Herkimer halted a British invasion at Oriskany on August 6, 1777, but Tories and Indians raided Mohawk Valley communities until 1781. After the war, land speculators reopened the area to settlement, and New York State granted Baron Friedrich von Steuben sixteen thousand acres near Remsen for his services as “drillmaster of the Revolution.” Construction of the Erie Canal began at Rome in 1817 under Governor De Witt Clinton and was completed in 1825. The canal, its Chenango branch to Binghamton in 1836, and railroad service in 1837 increased Utica’s importance as a transportation center and brought prosperity. Industrial production began early with textile mills along Sauquoit and Oriskany Creeks, and at Ilion Eliphalet Remington pioneered in manufacturing firearms. Today, electrical and electronics equipment makers have replaced textile factories, while fertile farmlands continue to provide dairy products.